Ryan Reynolds Discusses the Future of ‘Green Lantern’ and ‘Deadpool’

Ryan Reynolds recently gave an interesting, to say the least, interview for Empire Magazine’s podcast. While there’s plenty of gems throughout the interview, our attention was perked when asked about reprising his roles from Green Lantern and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

If you don’t recall, or have just suppressed it, Reynolds portrayed Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern. While the movie wasn’t the biggest of flops financially, it didn’t meet expectations. And fans weren’t too keen on it either. Regardless, there have been rumors that Reynolds will once again possess the power ring for the movie version of DC Comics’ Justice League. But, that may not exactly happen.

When asked if anyone has contacted him about Justice League, here was his response.

Not yet. I don’t know. If you’re gonna do comic book movies in that vein, you really have to get them right. I believe that Joss Whedon is the guy that just nails it and Christopher Nolan obviously nails it. So if they were gonna do it like that, it would be an interesting thing to do. It’s just that… working on Green Lantern, I saw how difficult it is make that concept palatable, and how confused it all can be when you don’t really know exactly where you’re going with it or you don’t really know how to access that world properly – that world comic book fans have been accessing for decades and falling in love with. So at this point I have very little interest in joining that kind of world. But, you know, a great script and a good director can always turn that around.”

Personally, I didn’t mind Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. The movie had a lot of flaws and it’s not exactly fair to pin its failure just on the leading man. So, with that being said, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing him return as Hal Jordan.

In fact, it would make a lot of sense for him to return in Justice League. If things go well with Man of Steel, at least then there would be two heroes from the team already introduced. However, the Justice League movie has had a pretty rough outing thus far. In case you missed it, there’s even word that the entire script has been trashed. Maybe Ryan will wisely steer clear of this disappointing project.

On the brighter side, he also gave an update on the Deadpool movie, which has a “a nearly NC-17” script written by Zombieland’s Paul Wernick and Rhett Rheese.

The script is one rewrite away from Deadpool jumping across the desk at the studio executive and attacking him.”

But I’ve always wanted to do the movie if only because Deadpool would get to do his own movie trailer. So that’s a thing that we were dying to do and we would love to be a part of that. I don’t know how it would fit though, no. In the current iteration of the script, it doesn’t address Wolverine – though it does address Deadpool’s appearance in Wolverine. Deadpool was not happy with Deadpool in Wolverine. He has a sort of a WTF!? moment with that.”

Most of us will probably agree that Reynolds’ portrayal of Wade Wilson was the best part about X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And, it was so good, that we’ve been waiting for a Merc with a Mouth solo flick since.

While there are fans, a passionate Ryan Reynolds and an intriguing sounding script from the guys behind Zombieland, Deadpool is a tough sell for the masses and studio. As Reynolds mentioned himself, “it’s about a guy who knows he’s in a movie and knows he’s in a comic book who is deeply mentally disturbed and hyper violent.”

That’s not saying that I don’t want Deadpool to happen, because I do. I think it would be a lot of fun to see on screen. And it has the potential to do some unique and creative things both during the film and for promotion. It’s just that it may be too violent for Fox to release and the general public may not get this “superhero” who’s constantly breaking “the fourth wall.” Maybe someone can start a Kickstarter campaign.

So, do you want to see Ryan Reynolds return as Hal Jordan in Justice League? Or, would you rather see him in a Deadpool solo adventure?